Developmental considerations in testing children for ESP - Extrasensory perception - Abstract

ABSTRACT: Parapsychologists have often used adolescent and adult populations when testing for psi phenomena and in trying to determine its various characteristics. Children, however, often seem to be overlooked as a viable research population.

There has been a large body of work collected on past life memories, recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis phenomena, teenage personality characteristics, school studies using teachers and students, and anecdotal reports of mother--child ESP occurrences. However, lab research has not been systematic in exploring and replicating studies dealing with the issue of development and psi abilities. It has lacked longitudinal studies and cluster studies, such as those conducted with adults in ganzfeld and remote viewing experiments, to conclusively settle the issue of development and psi.

There are several possible reasons for why researchers may not be comfortable working with children. Their reluctance may, in part, be due to a lack of understanding of developmental issues in order to use and create the best types of testing protocols. In addition, there are ethical issues related to conducting research with children, such as the American Psychological Association (APA) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) guidelines that need to be adhered to, as well as the possibility of fraud emerging from a child's desire to seek attention and continue receiving it and the desire to please adults.

This presentation offers a brief overview of developmental considerations in working with children and the types of protocols that may work best in each of the childhood stages. Piaget's cognitive stages of child development will be the foundation in examining one possible way of designing research studies and understanding how best to work with children.

In addition, the ethical issues involved in research with children is touched on along with an overview of the APA and AAAS guidelines as it affects research with children. Finally, the issue of the need to guard against possible fraud by children is also addressed. Examples of fraud by children and possible explanations for why children may resort to fraud during research studies, such as the need to seek attention and the desire to please adults, are explored.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Parapsychology Press
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group